Scores of patients tell harrowing tales of care at a Welsh hospital

Almost 100 relatives of patients treated at a hospital in Wales have complained of poor care at a public meeting.

Patient safety campaigners said the “harrowing” tales told by families of patients of Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend suggested problems akin to those in Mid-Staffs, with elderly people left in their own filth, and dehyrated or sedated.

Peter Walsh, chief executive of the charity Action against Medical Accidents, which organised the event, has added his voice to calls for an inquiry into the state of NHS care in Wales.

It follows the disclosure by The Daily Telegraph of an email from Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England medical director, sent last November, recommending an investigation into “persistently high mortality” at six hospitals, and expressing “real concerns” about prolongued waiting times for tests and treatment.

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, said the failure to investigate was a “total betrayal” of patients in Wales while The Royal College of Surgeons yesterday expressed concern that patients in South Wales are dying on waiting lists for heart surgery.

Police have arrested three nurses at the Bridgend hospital on suspicion of falsifying patient records.

Mr Walsh said a public meeting in the town last month exposed appalling failings in care.

He said: “It was an absolutely astonishing meeting. There were 100 people there and almost all of them had really harrowing tales to tell. As someone who went through the aftermath of Mid Staffs, it was so reminscent of of what we heard in Stafford.”

Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board, which runs the hospital, said: “We apologise to the patients and their relatives who have not had the high quality care they should have had. We are being transparent over these concerns.”

A Welsh Government spokesman said Sir Bruce had stated that he could not reach conclusions about the death rates and that extensive work was being done to reduce waiting lists for heart surgery.

He said much of the criticism of NHS care in Wales was “clearly politically motivated and have more to do with next year’s Westminster elections than patient safety.”

* Nurses working at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust as it meted out scandalously poor care were “set up to fail” becaues its hospitals were so badly run, a court has heard.

The Health and Safety Executive is prosecuting the trust over failings which led to the death of one diabetic patient, who died after nurses failed to administer insulin.

Yesterday the prosecution said the “complete absence” of proper systems of hand-over between nurses, “poor” record-keeping and communication between wards and clinicians meant that “in short, the nursing staff were set up to fail.”